Many electronic devices use touch screens (or touch panels) to present information to a user and also receive input from the user. Conventional touch sensing technologies sense the position of touches on a screen. While some touch sensing technologies are able to determine a magnitude of pressure (or force) applied to the touch screen, the pressure is determined based on the area of contact (or the rate of change thereof) on the surface of the touch screen. In this regard, the prior art approximates or extrapolates an estimate of the pressure applied, but does not measure the actual force applied. Furthermore, some capacitive touch screens are responsive to mere proximity to the surface of the touch screen, that is, they may respond or react when in fact no contact or impression has been made on the surface of the touch screen. As a result, prior art systems are not able to accurately measure and resolve the pressure (or force) that is applied against the touch screen to individual locations on the touch screen. Therefore, prior art systems utilize non-intuitive gestures as means for adjusting or otherwise manipulating content on the touch screen independently of the amount of pressure applied to the touch screen.